Abstract: A semiconductor device structure is provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a substrate having a base portion and a fin portion over the base portion. The semiconductor device structure includes an isolation layer over the base portion and surrounding the fin portion. The semiconductor device structure includes a metal gate stack over the isolation layer and wrapping around an upper part of the fin portion. The metal gate stack includes a gate dielectric layer and a metal gate electrode layer over the gate dielectric layer, and the gate dielectric layer includes fluorine. A first part of the isolation layer is not covered by the metal gate stack, the first part includes fluorine, and a first concentration of fluorine in the first part increases toward a first top surface of the first part.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and a pharmaceutical composition for cartilage regeneration or treatment of a cartilage defect disease, e.g., degenerative osteoarthritis, which comprises CXCL14 protein, or the peptide fragment thereof. The method and pharmaceutical composition could further comprise stem cell-derived extracellular vesicles.

Abstract: The present invention is related to a use of prochlorperazine (PCP), or analog thereof for treating a cancer in a subject by influencing membrane proteins and receptors and inducing alterations in the expressions of the surface marker on cancer cells and their derived extracellular vesicles. The invention method offers a novel approach for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer and metastasis. Specific surface markers serve as a potential candidate for cancer-associated extracellular vesicles (EVs) and have applications in diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic targeting.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus for decoding channel codes received from a noisy communication channel are provided. The method comprises: demodulating the received channel codes to obtain a demodulated data vector; and decoding, using a compute-in-memory (CIM), the demodulated data vector to obtain one or more candidate output codewords, the demodulated data vector is decoded with a guessing random additive noise decoding (GRAND) algorithm to obtain a candidate output codeword. By leveraging CIM technique for GRAND implementation, due to the intrinsic small size of memory cells relative to logic gates, the integration of storing and computing operations (e.g. multiply-and-accumulate (MAC) operation on the input vector with the weight matrix) in memory cells enables concurrently evaluating a multitude error patterns, therefore substantially reduce the worst-case latency of GRAND hardware implementation.

Abstract: The present invention is related to a method and pharmaceutical composition for treating a cartilage damage in a subject (including a human or an animal), particularly osteoarthritis (OA), using extracellular vesicles (EVs) with SOX9 gene, called as “EV-SOX9”. The EV-SOX9 is obtained by encapsulating the SOX9 mRNA or the mRNA of its upstream and downstream gene in EVs, naïve EVs with high expression level of SOX9 mRNA or its upstream and downstream gene from different cell sources, or MSC-derived EV-SOX9, which is obtained by transferring the SOX9 gene or its upstream and downstream gene into a multipotent cell and collecting EVs.

Abstract: A semiconductor device structure is provided. The semiconductor device structure includes a substrate having a base portion and a fin portion over the base portion. The semiconductor device structure includes an isolation layer over the base portion and surrounding the fin portion. The isolation layer includes fluorine, and a first concentration of fluorine in the isolation layer increases toward a top surface of the isolation layer. The semiconductor device structure includes a gate stack over the isolation layer and wrapping around the fin portion.

Abstract: A compound facial mask includes a flexible body, a discharge pattern, and a microneedle portion. The discharge pattern is positioned on the surface of the flexible body. The discharge pattern includes two metals, and the two metals have different redox potentials. The microneedle portion is positioned on the surface of the flexible body, prepared from a material different from the discharge pattern and provided with a plurality of conductive microneedles. By adopting the compound facial mask, absorption by the skin of a user can be promoted, and the absorption rate of ingredients in a liquid used in cooperation with the compound facial mask is increased.

Abstract: An ion collector includes a plurality of segments and a plurality of integrators. The plurality of segments are physically separated from one another and spaced around a substrate support. Each of the segments includes a conductive element that is designed to conduct a current based on ions received from a plasma. Each of the plurality of integrators is coupled to a corresponding conductive element. Each of the plurality of integrators is designed to determine an ion distribution for a corresponding conductive element based, at least in part, on the current conducted at the corresponding conductive element. An example benefit of this embodiment includes the ability to determine how uniform the ion distribution is across a wafer being processed by the plasma.

Abstract: A wound dressing is provided in some embodiments of the present disclosure. The wound dressing includes a porous substrate and a functional layer disposed on the porous substrate. The functional layer is charged or has conductivity. A method of manufacturing a wound dressing is further provided in some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Abstract: An ion collector includes a plurality of segments and a plurality of integrators. The plurality of segments are physically separated from one another and spaced around a substrate support. Each of the segments includes a conductive element that is designed to conduct a current based on ions received from a plasma. Each of the plurality of integrators is coupled to a corresponding conductive element. Each of the plurality of integrators is designed to determine an ion distribution for a corresponding conductive element based, at least in part, on the current conducted at the corresponding conductive element. An example benefit of this embodiment includes the ability to determine how uniform the ion distribution is across a wafer being processed by the plasma.

Abstract: A method includes transferring a tool monitoring device over a load port of a tool. A bottom of the tool monitoring device has a plurality of holes, and the load port comprises a plurality of pins at a top surface of the load port. The tool monitoring device is placed on the top surface of the load port. The pins at the top surface of the load port are plugged into the holes of the tool monitoring device. Heights of the pins are sensed to identifying a type of the load port after the tool monitoring device is placed on the top surface of the load port. An environment around the load port is monitored by using the tool monitoring device.

Abstract: A method includes transferring a tool monitoring device to a load port of a tool. An environmental parameter of the load port is monitored by the tool monitoring device. The tool monitoring device is removed from the load port after the environmental parameter of the load port is monitored. A door of the tool in front of the load port is closed. The door of the tool is kept closed during a period from a time of transferring the tool monitoring device to the load port to a time of removing the tool monitoring device from the load port.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides a pharmaceutical composition for treating Alzheimer’s disease, which at least includes an extracellular vesicle that is prepared by a method including: a first culturing step: performing an amplification culture of an adipose-derived stem cell in a first culture medium at a cell density of 6,000-15,000 cells/cm2 until an amplification amount of the adipose-derived stem cell is above 90% of that before the culture; a second culturing step: culturing the amplified adipose-derived stem cell in a second culture medium at a cell density of 10,000-100,000 cells/cm2 for 20-30 hours; and an extracellular vesicle separating step: collecting a culture solution and separating the extracellular vesicle from the culture solution by utilizing a tangential flow filtration (TFF) or ultrafiltration method.

Abstract: The current invention provides the nucleic acid carrier for producing the single-chain VEGF fusion protein comprising the same, and methods of making and using the same.

Abstract: An ion collector includes a plurality of segments and a plurality of integrators. The plurality of segments are physically separated from one another and spaced around a substrate support. Each of the segments includes a conductive element that is designed to conduct a current based on ions received from a plasma. Each of the plurality of integrators is coupled to a corresponding conductive element. Each of the plurality of integrators is designed to determine an ion distribution for a corresponding conductive element based, at least in part, on the current conducted at the corresponding conductive element. An example benefit of this embodiment includes the ability to determine how uniform the ion distribution is across a wafer being processed by the plasma.